


Transparent Replacements

by raviiel



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Angst with a vaguely happy ending?, But Mostly Hurt, Dysfunctional Relationships, Emotional Baggage, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Link Has PTSD, Link is kind of an asshole, Link is tired, Near Death Experiences, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Tatl is a brat but it's justified, Time Loop, Vignettes, they're both just kind of sad and pathetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 17:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17605961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raviiel/pseuds/raviiel
Summary: Link looks at Tatl but doesn't see her, and it makes her want to cry.





	Transparent Replacements

"Would you _stop?"_ Tatl finally snaps.

Link jerks from his reverie, suddenly unsure of where he is. He scans the area quickly and then looks back at Tatl in confusion. Her wings flutter irritably and her glow is sharp enough to bother his eyes. She shoves her tiny hands onto her tiny hips. He cocks his head.

"Oh, _no_ you don't," she jabs a finger in his direction, glitter shimmering off her, _"Don't_ you dare pretend like you don't know what you were doing."

Her voice is cold and sharp, stinging Link like the frostbite of Snowhead. He shivers, and then shakes his head at her before getting up and walking back towards Clock Town.

"Hey!" She darts after him and rounds to cut him off, and he stops. "That, too! You always do that whenever I catch you!"

Link blinks at her without the slightest idea of what she could be talking about, but her small size doesn't mean he can't make out her angry expression, red tinting across her face and staining her brightening light. He frowns.

 _I don't want to fight today,_ he thinks tiredly, and Tatl reads his expression, only to end up fuming more.

"This is _not_ a fight," she hisses, pulling back and crossing her arms, "this is me, confronting you and your stupid face every time you so much as _breathe_ in my direction! What's up with that?"

Link thinks she must be seeing things because he doesn't look at her _any_ particular way. He turns dismissively and continues his path back towards the inn. He wonders if Anju will try to cook for him again, even though—he glances at the towering clock from inside the town walls—she should be holed up in her room again, lamenting her mother's poison about her true love. Tatl twinkles furiously behind him, heaving a great _"HMPH!"_ and zooming ahead of him until she fades beyond the town walls. He keeps his meandering pace.

 

After healing the man in the Skulltula house on the Great Bay Coast, Link had spent the First Day of a new cycle recuperating from almost fucking up supremely—

_"There's no time!"_

_If I can just collect—_

_"You can do it next time! What are you waiting for?!"_

_No, I can do it now—_

_"Link, the MOON!"_

—but now that they're on a Second Day, there's no more time to waste. They're setting out to investigate the eastern region of Termina, Ikana. According to the maps he borrowed off the local cartographer, it's an area with steep ridges and deeper canyons, and across one of the main ones is the ruins of Ikana Castle, of which he discovered is the genealogical origin point of many of Clock Town's denizens. He's going to need a lot of rope, but the new hookshot he happened to nab from the Pirates' Fortress on the Great Bay Coast will come in a lot of handy too.

As Link prepares for the trip and following exploration (they're probably going to end up setting up camp for the night there and he'll wake up to a shaking earth as a reminder that there's not a lot of time… again), Tatl flutters in annoyance on the other side of the room, keeping as much distance between them as the space allowed. She must still be mad about one, almost dooming the world, and two, whatever he'd done to upset her last night.

He wonders if a fairy's temper can relate badly to their health. There's not a lot about them he knows; not that he ever bothered to ask Na—

"Are you _ready_ yet?" Tatl snaps, and he looks at her before tying up the rest of his supplies. It's going to be a long day.

 

"That's really sad," Tatl mutters. Link turns over the asymmetrical hunk of stone with eye holes and a crude mouth in his hands, aptly named the _Stone Mask._ He hardly hears what she's saying. "Imagine calling out for help for so long only to be seen right through. Could you imagine that? Being looked at but being looked _through_ instead."

She sounds particularly desolate about this concept, but Link can't understand why and opts to put away the mask instead.

It's been a few hours worth of trip already, but the map is telling him they're closing in on the valley that bars the old castle from the rest of this region. Seeing as it's a huge part of Termina's history, Link wonders why he hasn't heard more about this region. The cartographer (whose maps came from that strange little man… Tingle? What sort of name is that?) had seemed hesitant about sharing any information, warning Link— _I hope you know what you're getting yourself into, boy—_ about the land here. He didn't bother to tell the man that it's nothing he hasn't seen before.

"Sure hope you plan to get us there before sundown," Tatl mentions, scouting warily. She's been getting more antsy the closer Link gauges they are to the ruins. "Are you sure you know where we're going?"

 _Why don't you fly up and get a good look,_ he doesn't say, and doesn't look at her either since she would know the words absently rolling around his head as they turn around another ridge.

She'd spoken far too soon—the ridge moves away to reveal the deepest canyon he's seen outside of the Snowhead region and he has to marvel at how high the other side reaches; a sure pain to climb if it weren't for his rope and hookshot. He goes—

—only to stop immediately when the usual twinkling isn't by his side. Carefully, patiently, he turns around and moves his eyes in measure to look for Tatl. His muscles relax immediately when he spots her, still hovering where he was before. He tilts his head. Her face is tiny, so he can't make out much of her expression, but her panicked words are enough to tell her she doesn't look alright.

"I'mnotgoing," falls out of her mouth in stressed squeaks, and a frown deepens on Link's face. She snaps, "You're telling me you don't _feel_ that?"

Bemused, Link looks around the canyon. Nothing seems to be out of place, and yes, it is eerily quiet and the wind doesn't exist here, but he doesn't spend a lot of time studying his surroundings for anything but danger. He hasn't run into trouble yet, so he'll worry about that when he gets there. He nods his head at the cliff.

"I'm _not_ going!" Tatl screeches this time, stamping her foot on an invisible ground.

_Then you can stay here?_

Nausea rolls through Link's stomach the minute he thinks it. He can't leave her here, what if she gets hurt? Will she be here when he comes back? Is she going to _lea—_

He swallows against the sudden lump in his throat and then presses his lips together. She's practically quaking where she floats, and Link knows her terror when he sees it. If there _is_ something he's learned about fairies, it's that their sense for danger and dark things at work is unparalleled. He's not dense by any means, but he usually worries about the ominous when it physically presents itself to him so it can meet his blade.

After taking a calming breath (the thoughts are leaving, he doesn't have to worry about her disappearing, she needs him, too), Link goes back her way and gently cups his hands together. Whatever is here still grinds on her nerves and she nearly flinches away from him because of it, but he patiently keeps his palms up. Without looking at him, her light dimmer than normal but her face slightly pinked, she shakily lowers. His eyes don't want to move even though watching so intently should feel weirder than it does.

"You can't _look_ at me like that," Tatl bemoans after peeking through her fingers, "You can't look at me like that!" She folds over, still shaking. "It's not fair! Stop it!" Her voice is nothing but a minuscule jingling.

Ignoring her clearly upset complaining, he raises his hands to his cap. The wait for her to stop shaking seems like hours but is only a few minutes, and he can feel her uncurl in his hands. She jumps at the sight of his waiting hat and clicks her tongue, banging her fists against his palms.

"You're the _worst,"_ she hisses, and then pointedly climbs in. Her grip is a little too tight on the strands of his hair, but he doesn't make a sound. It's a familiar feeling he'd almost forgotten; Tatl thinks 'hiding' in his cap is _weakness,_ and they both know she spits on anything remotely related.

He vaguely recalls a looser grip, one more comfortable when things got rough, recalls a similar ritual when his hands were more shaky and his nerves were tighter, waiting for danger but begging for it not to come. Sure enough, like the rise of the sun and the fall of the moon at the end of seventy-two hours, it always came.

Fairies supposedly like sleeping on heads and find comfort there too. They tend to share a lot of traits among them, in fact. He thinks he's learned _some_ things about them.

...The cliff leading to the ruins isn't going to climb itself.

 

 _"Don't,"_ Tatl nearly weeps, and a small, trembling hand falls onto the cold surface of the ocarina. "Stop doing this to yourself. We've tried this too many times already and we're not any closer to reuniting them!"

Link blanches, not at her inevitably harsh voice, but at the fact that she wants to _give up._ He pulls the ocarina back from her touch. She glares at him, darting right into his face and flash-blinding him.

"What do you get out of this? Out of making sure they're together just to _die?"_ She snarls. "All you're doing is hurting yourself!"

_No, I'm not, I'm—_

…Yes, they've cycled through this timeline of events several times (he lost count after five), but he's getting _closer._ He _just_ needs to get back to Ikana before that thief does. If the thief gets there before him, he'll find Kafei in his hideout, they'll fight, and Kafei will lose.

Anju will die in that room, waiting all by herself. They'll never see each other again if Link doesn't pull it together and see this through.

He puts the ocarina to his lips and Tatl droops and dims in resignation.

"This is the last time," she demands. It's not.

It can't be the last time, because when Anju looks at him with reddened eyes and desperation cracking in her voice, he can't say no. She wants Kafei to return to her so _badly,_ she loves him so _much,_ and even though Link has been through this scenario more times than he's wanted, he doesn't understand why Kafei would leave someone like her behind and in the dark. It riles a fire in Link's chest that, even after ten times, he can't smother. It's pride, he thinks, it has to be pride. No person who loves another like this would ever let something as menial as a curse get between them. Link hates Kafei for thinking that Anju would turn him away—she would never.

Tatl hates it. Tatl hates Anju. Hates the way Link looks at her and gestures in comfort to her. Link doesn't know why and Tatl would never tell him, but he knows that she does just by the way she has begun refusing to be around when Link meets Anju in the kitchen at night to once again face her heartbroken pleas for help.

Even if it wasn't something Link was hellbent on doing, he doesn't understand why Tatl is so against it—they've done good things for practically the entire town now, so what's different about Anju? Nothing. They have to help her. They _have_ to. Link has to. He can't give this up, no matter how angry Kafei makes him, no matter how many times he has to hear Anju's mother be horrible about the whole thing, no matter how many times Tatl says that this is pointless and they're going to die anyway.

If Link doesn't help Anju and Kafei reunite, then what's the point in saving Termina?

"You're being dramatic," Tatl says quietly from inside his hat as he confronts Kafei once again, fists clenching and relaxing in turns.

Kafei gives him the pendant, and Link wants to chuck it in his face and yell, _Why don't you give it to her yourself! You're right there!_ Because tonight, Anju's mother will be smearing his name and drawing out Anju's doubts, no matter how hard she reassures herself that he's coming back.

 _Coward,_ Link wants to spit, because Kafei's stubborn refusal to go through with such a simple thing to mend this entire situation _hurts._ Why wouldn't someone want to reunite with another piece of them?

 

"You're taking it too personally. Why are you doing this?" Her voice is small and less angry, more sad and wistful, but he hardly has time to pay attention to it. This is the delicate part: He's not worried about exposing himself, he's worried about _Kafei_ exposing them, because it's happened before. They wait all that time for sundown only for Sakon to discover them and flee, never to return.

Link pulls out the Stone Mask. Kafei looks at it.

"I will not need it."

Link wants to roll his eyes right out of his head but abstains; he's learned that Kafei and flippancy don't mix well, so all he does is press the mask forward. If he worded out the command, all he would do is tell Kafei how many times he's exposed them and ended up in the ravine, but that's unfair. Link has made his fair share of mistakes during this mission, too.

"...It's going to help, you mean?"

Link nods eagerly, thanking the Goddesses that pride bred no argument this time. Kafei acquiesces into taking the mask, and it's one less thing on Link's mind.

They wait and thoroughly ignore the shaking earth as the moon closes in on the land.

 

Sakon is dead. It couldn't be helped. Link didn't have time to let Kafei struggle with him when they were a mere _thirty minutes_ from total devastation.

"We're not going to have enough time to get back!" Kafei shouts over the rumbling that's become perpetual. Panic dominates his usually cool face, and the Sun Mask shakes in his hands. "I took too long, and that _bastard,_ he—"

"Link," Tatl warns, "Link, we don't have time."

Link furiously shakes his head and drags Kafei from the hideout, leaving Sakon's arrow-pierced body behind. He'll have to see him again. There's still the old woman he has to rescue from him too, and he'll have to beg the Goddesses to give him the restraint not to kill him again, no matter how satisfying it felt.

"What does it matter," Kafei spits, becoming dead weight in Link's hold. "It's not possible to make it back to her like this." His voice his shuddering and weak, and Link jerks back with his knees collapsing to the ground. Stunned, Link looks at him clutch the mask he sought so passionately to the ends of the earth instead of going home to a lover who would accept him no matter what happened to him, and in that moment, he really _does_ look like the child Skull Kid cursed him to be.

"Link," Tatl is jerking on his clothes, views frantically switching between him and the moon, "Don't do this again, _don't."_ The terror is impossible to miss in her tone, but Link is still watching Kafei wrangle himself in the face of death. "We'll—We'll have enough time, we can just go back! We know—We know what to d-do now!"

She's using all of her little fairy strength and being the voice of reason as fairies always are, trying to get him to do something— _anything,_ but he's still looking at Kafei while the minutes tick by. His brain bounces between death and time and birth and so many things are stacked on top of each other because Kafei is _just going to give up? Just like that? He's just going to leave Anju to die alone?_

Heat that had been carefully and tightly curled in Link's stomach springs up. His jaw clenches. He snatches Kafei by the collar of his clothing and lugs him up with strength he has only as a Goron. The Sun Mask clatters to the ground in Kafei's shock, but now his red and red-rimmed eyes balk at Link.

"Link, no!" Tatl cries. "You're just gonna hate yourself for it later!"

But Link shakes Kafei by the collar, wildness in his expression, and he feels like what the Happy Mask Salesman looks like when he comes back without Majora's Mask— _angry,_ because _how_ could Kafei just give up? _How_ could he just _leave her behind?_ Why does whatever he had to do mean more than his partner?

"STOP!"

Without realizing it, Link's fist had raised to strike Kafei, but Tatl was there, her small body curling around his white knuckles, her face pressing into his skin as her pale light dims even more with her fear, and her face is pinked and teary. Link blinks several times. All of the anger suddenly floods out of him and his slackened grip drops Kafei to the ground. The earth quakes violently.

_They don't have time—_

Link wants to smack himself, but there's no time.

_Yes there is!_

His voice is rough with misuse but after pulling himself together, he gathers up a shell-shocked Kafei and the _stupid fucking mask_ they came here for and pulls them snug to him.

"Hang on," is all he says. Dazed, Kafei only nods.

Link begs for the shadow of Kaepora Gaebora to whisk them to Clock Town through his ocarina.

 

It's a race against death when they land. Being through this so many times, Link knows exactly when the moon will start to descend— _thirty seconds before death—_ and they have five minutes by the time he's chucking open the front door of the Stock Pot Inn. It's a ghost town. Everyone's fled under the belief that any sort of distance will save them.

Kafei has barely been able to string two words together since they landed, everything falling out of his mouth jumbled and confused, but when they get to the door Link is about to bust open, he exclaims.

"Wait!"

 _Wait?_ The word shoots through Links mind. He gapes in disbelief. _Wait?!_

Kafei frees himself from Link's iron grip and shuffles, hugging the mask to his chest.

"What if she…" He swallows thickly. "What if she doesn't want me anymore…?"

 _You've got to be fucking kidding me!_ Link wants to believe that his ears are playing tricks on him, but Kafei is _actually_ saying things like this when Anju is _literally_ on the other side of the door, waiting for him!

"Don't have time," he rasps, and clutches Kafei's arm again before throwing open the door.

There she is, half-strewn on the bed in despair, but their sudden entrance startles her.

At the sight of her astonished and relieved and _happy_ face, Link wants to sob.

Tatl doesn't rush him to turn back time. He does it just five seconds before the end.

 

Link barely manages not to kill Sakon the night he robs the old lady from the Bomb Shop. Tatl spends the rest of the night cradling his head as his rage peels away in trembles.

 

It's three more cycles before Tatl pokes the topic of Link and his groundless passion for reuniting Anju and Kafei.

"Did you do it for yourself?"

She sounds scared to ask, almost upset that she wanted to, and Link looks at her. When he thinks back to it, he's… embarrassed. And sad. Always sad. Anju had waited for so long, and were it not for Link hacking and slashing his way through it, Kafei would've never returned. He would've disappeared into thin air. Into the sky. Never to come back. Anju would wait for him until the moment she died.

He buries his face in his hands. It matters so much to him. His fingers press into his scalp. The pain of losing someone who was apart of you for so long, though thick and thin.

"You never even listened to me," Tatl laughs weakly, sinking onto one of his knees, "I really thought you were gonna get us killed for good…"

The breath he lets out his shaky and his fingers run up his face and through his hair, making his hat fall to the ground. He peeks at Tatl to see her rubbing at her eyes and guilt wells up in him. She never asked for this, and he's put her through so much. This isn't what she was meant for—if she ever had a purpose at all. All fairies do. Usually to make their child happy. Link is not her child, and she does not make him happy. He cups one hand for her to hop into. Sniffling, she wipes at her face and crawls into his palm, and he brings it up to his face.

"Don't look at me like that," she laments, but then stands up with a reddening glow. She stamps one foot on his palm. "Have you considered that maybe _you're_ the pitiful one?"

He blinks at her.

 _"No,"_ she flares, "don't you _dare_ play dumb. You don't get to play dumb!" She flings her hands up in the air. "You think I don't notice how you look at me?"

 _Oh no,_ shoots through Link's mind. He quickly pulls his hand away from his face, but it's for nothing; Tatl zips up back to where she was, stabbing an accusing finger at him.

"You think I haven't figured out _why_ you nearly killed us not once—not even _twice!_ But a _whooole_ bunch of times while trying to reunite that stupid couple?!"

Link shoots up from the bench in the Laundry Pool.

"Don't you _dare_ walk away from me. You did this!" She flies after him, her voice the loudest sound in the night. He needs air. Fresh air. Fresher air. He heads for the town limits. "Fairies can naturally understand emotions, y'know!"

_Then why can't you understand that I don't want to talk about this?_

The words are cluttered and grind inside his head more than anything else, but he's focused on putting space between him and Tatl's vicious but veracious words. Humiliation and fear burn at his face, all the way to the tips of his pointed ears that the Goddesses never speak into, and isn't everything about this just a fine _joke?_

"It's not fair that you think you get to walk away from me when I haven't done anything," Tatl shouts, back on the verge of tears. "Just because I can't be who you want me to be, doesn't mean I don't deserve the same a-affection I know you showed her!"

Link freezes in his tracks. _No,_ he insists to himself, she's talking about Anju. She's talking about Cremia. Or Lulu. Or _anyone else but—_

"You can't just act like…" Tatl sniffles, voice cracking, "like you're going to leave me here just because sh-she left you…"

Images and thoughts race a mile a minute through Link's trauma-addled and exhausted mind, and he's rooted to his spot, breathing speeding up without him even realizing. His fingers thread tight into his hair and clench into fists, pulling. He crouches and his mouth opens to scream.

"I'm not a replacement," Tatl weeps softly, watery. "Look at me for me! Don't just… see through me… see someone else..."

Link stops. His eyes blink open and in surprise, he looks over his shoulder. Tatl has drooped to the grass, blades dulled by the storm that will come tomorrow practically burying her. Her glow is almost entirely faded. Shame surges through him and he falls onto his butt, heaving a great sob.

_They're not the same._

_What am I doing?_

She would be so disappointed in him. So disappointed that he pretended it would be the same, that they could be together again in this way—using a substitute, treating a fellow fairy like they were all the same. Fairies are not all the same. They're not interchangeable. Even though their purposes are all the same, to help their child and make them happy, they all do it differently.

Tatl does not make him happy… but that doesn't mean he has to make her miserable in exchange. She already has a child to make happy, someone that needs rescuing just as much as she does.

He presses his palms against his eyes. Tatl does not make him happy—but she doesn't have to. It's not her purpose. She was not given to him, did not adopt him, wasn't _meant_ for him.

Link already had his fairy, had his time with her, and that time ended. He's spent so much time trying to reunite everyone else simply because he couldn't reunite with _her,_ and now he's hurt someone else in the process. What would she think of him now?

"...Tatl," he mumbles.

She doesn't respond, but he doesn't blame her. He picks himself off the ground and makes his way over, careful with his steps since she isn't as easy to spot in the grass.

When he does find her, he folds to his knees and lowers a palm. Tatl looks at it like it might snuff out her light and then hesitantly looks up at him. He doesn't know what she sees in his face, but it convinces her to climb on. He brings her up to eye level and turns words over in his head several times, licking his dry lips and hoping he doesn't mess this up.

"I'm… sorry."

Silence follows for a long moment.

She nearly gapes at him, her glowing eyes wide enough to look painful, but the shock is gone as quick as it had come. She shuffles awkwardly in his palm before reaching for his face. She almost rubs his cheek, but only pats it stiffly and looks down with her next words.

"Maybe… Maybe I'm sorry, too," she whispers. "In another life, maybe—"

Link shakes his head, because that does neither of them any good. Tatl presses her lips together.

"...You're right."

They exchange no more words, but when Tatl stows away inside Link's hat, her grip is softer, not as desperate.

 

The earth is shaking. The clock is counting down. The Carnival is going to start. Link and Tatl stand on the ledge where the stairs leading to the clock face are. They wait.

"You know…" Tatl begins, sitting on his shoulder, leaning on his neck and relaxed like they aren't facing the end of the world. "She loved you a lot. Maybe even more than you loved her."

Link doesn't flinch. Doesn't tense. Doesn't make a sign of having heard, other than the tiniest of twitches to his lips.

_What makes you say that?_

Tatl sighs, both a little dreamy and a little sad.

"Fairies tend to have those kinds of things in common. Call it a hunch."

The clock tolls. The stairs fall. Side by side, Link and Tatl ascend.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> SO this shit took a completely different turn from what i initially wanted. BIG RIP. but that gives me an opportunity to try again! and write what i actually wanted! although i do really ride with this, that Link and Tatl are just. the Worst together and it makes both of them miserable but they'd be garbage without each other in this adventure, so i hope i was able to illustr8 that!
> 
> anyway! i have a [zelda-centric tumblr now! come check it out and follow mayhaps?](https://fiercerdeities.tumblr.com/) keke i'll be writing more loz stuff in the future :^)


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